Social media has been an amazing addition to our lives; we are connecting with old friends we lost touch with, seeing current events unfold in real time and connecting with various information sources that can often times be a bit overwhelming.  So if you’re searching for some help to make some small lifestyle changes without feeling overwhelmed by the mass amounts of information online, I’ve put together some quick tips for you. These small changes will make a big impact on your health!

Here are some quick steps to help make a fresh start; you can apply these at any time and don’t need to coordinate with a challenge, or lifestyle/special diet change. These will simply help you achieve a healthier approach to food choices, and to get on track for a healthier you. 

1. Commit these to memory and live them daily: 

  • Eat whole, unprocessed foods
  • Eat a colorful variety of plants
  • Get healthy fats from sources like nuts, seeds and avocados
  • Choose nutrient dense foods

2. Add a big, colorful salad to your lunch and dinner – starting with a salad ensures you’re eating your greens, and prevents eating too many carbs or other nutrient-lacking foods.

3. Stock a healthy pantry – think non GM foods, gluten-free (but not sugary type replacement foods) and avoid processed foods as much as possible.

4. Choose lean, grass-fed protein sources when possible

5. Adapt your plate to focus on veggies first, then protein, with nuts & seeds as highlights for flavor.

6. Get healthy fats from whole foods – think nuts, seeds and avocados

7. Choose while grains over refined (if you’re still eating grains)

8. Avoid processed & refined sweeteners – think of fresh, frozen and dried fruits to sweeten meals instead.

9. Add nutrient dense oils to your routine – think Coconut and Olive Oil instead of vegetable, cottonseed or corn based oils.

10. Remember GIGO:  garbage in = garbage out. You are what you eat, so make sure you’re eating nutrient dense, whole foods whenever possible!

 

 

One of my favorite new indulgences, Birchbox, is a monthly subscription program that sends a unique selection of various beauty samples to your door for a low monthly fee of only $10. Normally I find the samples to be a fun way to try products I might normally otherwise not have heard of, thought occasionally they include something that I don’t particularly care for. While I’m not sure that they are featuring this new product in the next month’s shipment, they wrote a piece about it on their blog, and I found it interesting as it relates to whether our bodies would actually absorb vitamins topically. (more…)